Pictorial Camera Field

[John Ramdenee]

Hi,
In the web view there is a great option to display the image of where the scope is currently pointing.
I THINK the actual view is linked to the sensor information...is that correct? It references the current camera details in terms of arcminutes of view - however the picture is square. Is it possible to show the actual sensor shape in this image?

I've had a look through the code and style elements in the author section but can not see any reference to the camera set up (i.e. the sensor data), so don't really know how to proceed with what I want (or whether it is possible)

thanks
John

[Bob Denny]

John -- As it is the display is limited to square as I understand. The display item was written by ACP Wizard Dick Berg. Maybe he will chime in here. I only see a PinPoint license for you so I assume you are trying out ACP. Once/if you are on board, the feature can be submitted as a wish-list item.

[John Ramdenee]

Hi Bob,
Thanks for the quick reply.
Yes I am deep into learning ACP at the moment.
I use full pinpoint within Maxim DL.

Looking good at the moment - really like the ease (and I have even got FocusMax working for autofocus using the simulators )
All seems to be working well - ACP - MaximDL - Pinpoint - FocusMax.
I was trying to download ACP Planner to check into that as I also have a licence for TSXPro. Currently download link asks for my info and I get a message that my email is already known - no download. Will try a different email.

If I go ahead with the ACP purchase I will add the FOV question in this thread as a feature request.

One further question - does plate solving always start first with Pinpoint and fall back to astrometry.net?

John

[Bob Denny]

Hi again ==

I was trying to download ACP Planner to check into that as I also have a licence for TSXPro.

The ACP download page has the Planner download link. Also note that TheSky by default does not register its COM interfaces as needed by Planner. So one time only, start TheSky "as Administrator". Right click on TheSky.exe and select Run as Administrator. Let it come up and sit for 30 seconds. Now exit. Do not set it to always run "as Administrator" (and that goes for all of our software and MaxIm as well, no administrator!).

One further question - does plate solving always start first with Pinpoint and fall back to astrometry.net?

Yes if you allow it in the settings:

Snap2.jpg

[Bob Denny]

Additional info:

Snap3.jpg

[John Ramdenee]

Additional info:

Snap3.jpg

Now that is interesting... much prefer the idea of a local copy. Thank you. Had not read that yet.

I am finding that Pinpoint solves most images in the simulation set up (so astronomy.net is not used much) - but GSC is better that USNO 2.0 for wide fields. Does that ring true. Now what would be amazing is if you could set the platesolver in the text file depending on which scope one was using I have FL's of 337, 600, 1,480 and 2350 across 3 scopes on the same mount.

[Dick Berg]

Hi John, Bob,

Thank you for the credit, but actually, you (Bob) wrote this display item five years ago. The code is in aaladinlite.asp. We recently talked about a different display item I wrote called "Telescope Aimpoint" that is similar to Pictorial Camera Field but instead plots the stars extracted from the currently used catalog in a 30' square FOV.

John, if the camera and telescope are connected, then Pictorial Camera Field picks up the actual camera's FOV (x-direction) and uses it to produce the image (which still will be square). That is, it will be as wide as your camera FOV is. It may not be possible to make it match the FOV in both dimensions. You can still use the mouse and mouse wheel to zoom in/out and pan. If they are not connected, then the dimensions default to 30' and you can still zoom and pan.

[John Ramdenee]

Hi John, Bob,

Thank you for the credit, but actually, you (Bob) wrote this display item five years ago. The code is in aaladinlite.asp. We recently talked about a different display item I wrote called "Telescope Aimpoint" that is similar to Pictorial Camera Field but instead plots the stars extracted from the currently used catalog in a 30' square FOV.

John, if the camera and telescope are connected, then Pictorial Camera Field picks up the actual camera's FOV (x-direction) and uses it to produce the image (which still will be square). That is, it will be as wide as your camera FOV is. It may not be possible to make it match the FOV in both dimensions. You can still use the mouse and mouse wheel to zoom in/out and pan. If they are not connected, then the dimensions default to 30' and you can still zoom and pan.

Thank you...Having the correct x-direction FOV is still excellent. I've included it in the main status panel through authoring.
I noticed that maximising the image to fill the panel maintains the x-axis FOV, which makes me think there is some maths magic that can be applied to the width based on the sensor ratio of width to height. Basically it is already possible to exactly mirror the sensor FOV in x and y by maximising the image (upper right max arrows) and then adjusting the browser window size - so some width/height styling to the box based on the sensor ratio might be a quick route for me to do this.

Honestly, in the scheme of things, not sure how important it is. Just find being able to see what the camera can see before starting an image run all within the browser interface is great.

regards
John

[Bob Denny]

Oops!!! Call me embarrassed. I’ve been trying to stay current here while working on the scheduler in an area that requires a lot of concentration. I confess to not giving the answer due thought. Thanks Dick.

ACP-1803 - Make Web FOV Display Adapt to Camera

[Dick Berg]

Good Morning, Bob,

watch.gif Conecntrate! You are falling asleep. Concentrate!

It looks to me like the Aladin API does not allow specifying the FOV in both directions, thus creating only a square image. However, the <div> in the body of the script can be modified to make a rectangular image, which actually masks the vertical dimension instead of compressing it. Here's what mine looks like. The 450 and 305 are in the same ratio as my camera's X and Y pixel dimensions:

<div id="aladin-lite-div" style="width:450px; height:305px;"></div>

That gives this image:

PCF002.png

The existing code already adapts to the X-pixels dimension. The question is whether the div's "style" can be constructed as a variable, so that what's 305 above could actually be computed relative to the 450 depending on the Y-pixels relative to the X-pixels.

There are other Aladin parameters that can get rid of any of the icons/buttons appearing in the image, too.